During the last few decades, same-time-same-place gambling has been complemented by same-time-different-place activities. Telephone betting has a long history that includes activities that have been proscribed (e.g., starting price or S.P. bookies), that have been approved (e.g., on-course bookies), and, in some countries, that have been State-conducted (e.g., phone-betting with State Government Totalisator Agency Boards or TABs).
It has long since been recognized that the virtualization of gambling could result in major changes to society. Whereas in 1975 few people might have contemplated a future in which bets could be placed on which member of the British Royal Family would die next, or on which state would next erupt in civil war, such bets can now be placed in the United Kingdom and in several other nations around the world. Betting houses offering such services are becoming readily accessible on the Internet.
Gambling is increasingly becoming a major feature of interactive networks. So much so, it appears to be one of the largest sources of revenue generation on the Internet. Use of the Internet for gambling is especially significant because it is fully operational, it uses an existing and pervasive infrastructure, and its market reach is already very wide. In addition to its physical advantages the growth rate of the Internet is dramatic and it is intrinsically extra-, and even supra-jurisdictional, making it extremely resistant to existing regulatory frameworks.
Satellite and cable infrastructures may be used to operate services independent from the Internet. It is important to note, however, that they are also entirely capable of being used as carrier mechanisms for Internet traffic, and indeed to support both proprietary and Internet channels at the same time. If satellite and/or cable come to supplant the public switched telephone network (PSTN) carried Internet, it will not necessarily supplant the Internet itself.
With particular regard to betting, real-time betting is quite difficult to carry out in a way that, allows the remoteness of the activity to be transparent o the user. That is, current real-time betting systems do not create an environment for a user that emulates the timing, and sensation, of carrying out a live, on location activity. Further, the real-time betting systems that do exist are not intuitive or easy to use by a majority of bettors.